Based on a legend that jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden made a long-lost recording in 1904 New Orleans of a song that came to be know as “Tiger Rag,” Christopher has created a pair of compelling contemporary characters who search for the old Edison cylinder. Dr. Ruby Cardillo is an anesthesiologist who’s taken to wearing only purple after her doctor husband dumps her for a 26-year-old. Her jazz-pianist daughter, Devon, is a recovering addict. Together, they try to uncover the secrets of — and family connections to — the Holy Grail of jazz.

Bend, Not Break

A Life in Two Worlds

by Ping Fu (Portfolio/Penguin)

Today, Ping Fu is the CEO of tech firm Geomagic, which she founded with her husband. She’s come a long way. At 8, her family in Shanghai was torn apart by the Cultural Revolution — she and her younger sister sent to a re-education camp in another city. Ping was forced to eat what she calls “bitter meals” of dirt, animal dung and tree bark. She was raped at 10, a political prisoner at 25. Finally deported to America, she arrived her with just $80 and knowing almost no English. Her success at the American Dream is a real triumph.

The Colour of Milk

by Nell Leyshon (Ecco)

Mary lives in 1830, but life on her family’s rural British farm feels more like the Dark Ages in author Leyshon’s first novel. Partially crippled, Mary tells the reader — in her own 14-year-old’s words — of her daily toil at the difficult work of farming, chided by a mother who believes “happiness never did no one any good.” Her father is an angry man prone to violence. Things change when Mary takes a job in the home of the local vicar, where she learns to read and write. She wants to go home, but things aren’t so simple.

The Explorer

by James Smythe (Harper Voyager)

There have been teachers in space, senators, and the wealthy who buy tickets. But never has a journalist been launched over the atmosphere. Until Smythe’s gripping novel. Cormac Easton is the journalist picked to report on the first manned mission to deep space. But nothing goes as planned. After awakening from hypersleep, the crew discovers their captain has died. Soon, one by one, the rest of the astronauts die, leaving Easton the only one left and no way to turn around.

The Carter Family

Don’t Forget This Song

by Frank M. Young and David Lasky (Abrams ComicArts)

If you’re fan of resurgent roots music, rock ’n’ roll or just plain old country music, you can thank the Carter Family — A.P., Mother Maybelle and Sara — for their contributions. It all stems from their recordings made from 1927 on. And this graphic novel captures their success and failure, poverty and riches and their great work, which included “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” and “Keep On the Sunny Side.” An 11-track CD of a radio appearance from 1939 is a great bonus.